66 THE SCHOOL GARDEN. 



schools of industry, itinerant teachers and lecturers, 

 will all come too late if the public school does not give 

 a stimulus to rational improvement in agriculture to 

 the children. 



Glorious words has Settegast uttered upon this sub- 

 ject : " It cultivates the whole man who must stand in 

 noble self-reliance, that his activity may extend over 

 wide circles those threads of influence with which the 

 welfare of the whole people is interwoven. The clods' 

 of the homestead cultivated by him offer a stronghold 

 which is proof against the dark powers of poverty and 

 immorality. In the consciousness of wishing and offer- 

 ing something worthy rests the highest joy of the hus- 

 bandman. Out of this consciousness he draws the ideal 

 contemplation of his calling." Such natures, with such 

 practical, moral and manly views of life, must be formed 

 by the school garden in increasing numbers. 



Is a wide-spread proof necessary to show that even 

 the future craftsman, like that city child who frequents 

 no other school than the public school, will gain a 

 hundred incitements directly or indirectly for his fu- 

 ture calling from the school garden ? It has been* 

 shown plainly that the greatest part of the instruction 

 in natural science has a natural connection with the 

 school garden, but that only through the limiting and 

 concentrating of the material, can that be. made fruitful 

 which otherwise it would be better to cast out of the 

 public school as mere rubbish. 



BEAUTIFYING THE LAND. 



The second point of view which must recommend 

 the general spread of school gardens is the beautifying 

 of the land, which will unquestionably be among their 



